


One Day at a Time

by TeaTimee



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Dani lives, F/F, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I fixed it, This is cannon now, youre welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:34:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27226624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaTimee/pseuds/TeaTimee
Summary: This is a rewrite of the end of the Haunting of Bly Manor.Picks up on Jamie arriving at Bly after Dani leaves her.Spoiler alert: they live happily ever after
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 14
Kudos: 158





	1. Chapter 1

The gravel driveway crunched as Jamie stepped out of the taxi, the vice-like grip around her heart tightened as she made her way towards the lake, the grounds that she had walked a thousand times felt cold and disconnected. Her entire body was focused on one thing.  _ Dani. The lake.  _

Her stride barely faltered as her feet hit the lake, kicking off the muddy bottom the second it was too deep to walk.    
  
She hesitated slightly, treading water in the middle of the lake, her shoes full of water, dragging after her feet. She barely registered the cold.    
  
_ Please no, please don’t be- _ _  
_ _  
_ Jamie took a deep breath and dove.    
  
Dani lay at the bottom of the lake, eyes open and unblinking. Jamie felt all the air leave her lungs in a scream, the sound swallowed by the water. She kicked hard, her waterlogged shoes infuriatingly slowing her down.    
  
_ No, no, no, no- _   
  
Her lungs were burning but still, she pushed down, her hand reaching out, reaching for Dani. Jamie’s vision was clouding and every part of her screamed for air but there was no way she would leave Dani down there, cold and alone to-    
  
The buoyancy of her clothes and her treacherous body was trying to pull her back to the surface, pull her away from Dani. She kicked again, reaching out, reaching down, reaching towards her-

Fingers brushed hers and Jamie grabbed and- the fingers grabbed back.

Dani’s hand holding onto hers like it had a thousand times before, fingers slotting into place, a hand on hers as they stood outside Bly the first time, their hands, joined, dancing around the tiny living room in their shitty little house, side by side on the couch, Dani slipping her wedding ring on to Jamie’s finger. Holding onto each other in the car, the living room, in bed. Fingers Jamie had been terrified would never link with her own ever again.

Jamie kicked again towards the surface this time, pulling Dani with her.   
  
Jamie’s head broke the surface first, a cacophony of gasping and coughing that doubled barely a second later when Dani was pulled up beside her. Jamie kicked frantically towards the shore, one arm wrapped around Dani’s waist and the other striking through the frigid water.

The two girls collapsed on the shore of the lake, clinging to each other frantically. Jamie was crying, sobbing, clutching Dani to her as if she would never let go.   
  
“Don’t- please, we’ll sort it out, we can- we can fix this, please Dani-” Her words were broken by the tears and her heaving chest as she sobbed and coughed up lake water.   
  


Dani finished coughing up her own lungful of water and gently cupped Jamies face in her hands, brushing tears mixed with lake water away with her thumbs.   
  
“Jamie- Jamie, I- I felt her- I know,” she gasped the words out like she almost didn’t believe them, “I know how to- how to- I think I can get her out of me.”   
  
Jamie stilled, water still dripping from her clothes and hair. “Are you sure?”    
  
“Yes.”    
  
They sat there, crying and kissing and freezing in the mud. Wrapped up in each other, hope blooming in their hearts.   
  
The days that followed weren’t easy, they found a hotel nearby and began their research in the town library. Hours sifting through records, trips to all kinds of historical societies and council offices. Dani refused to sleep in the same room as Jamie, unwilling to risk the woman she loved even as she ached for Jamie’s warm body pressed against hers at night.    
  
It took them the better part of a month to track down Sophia Hastings, but luckily England is small and families, especially wealthy ones, tend to stay in the same place. She was twenty-four, with brown hair and eyes to match, and cheekbones that could cut stone. The resemblance between her and the portrait of Viola, which still hung in the empty manor, was striking.    
  
It was a strange request, but Sophia was revealed to be quite a mystery lover and a quick call to Henry Wingrave, who seemed to have had trouble letting go of the last residence of his late brother and was more than happy to help the women who saved the life of his niece and nephew, saw a large yellow machine with a claw attachment sifting through the bottom of the lake. 

Finally, after almost 400 years, the chest saw the light of day again as it was pulled from its resting place. It was almost rotted through and with one great heave from Sophia, the rusted hinges gave way and the chest was open.    
  
Jamie and Dani were standing a few meters away from the waterlogged chest but when Sophia’s hand touched the ancient rusted metal, Dani saw it happen as if she were inside it. She saw the light push its way into the chest and a girl, with long brown hair and the brown eyes of her mother. For a split second she is Viola, and Isabel has finally returned to her.    
  
A great rush of air shot through Dani, Viola was finally free. The last thing she heard before she hit the ground was Jamie screaming her name.   
  
“Dani! Dani!” Jamie barely managed to catch her wife as she fell, carefully lowering her to the ground.

“Dani, can you hear me?” and for the third time on the edge of this blasted lake, Jamie’s heart was filled with the fear that Dani was gone, gone _ again. _ _  
_ _  
_ “C’mon Poppins!” Jamie punched the grass, tears blurring her vision.    
  
“Jamie?” Dani’s voice was faint and her eyes fluttered open slowly.   
  
Jamie’s breath caught in her throat, they were blue. Both of Dani’s eyes were clear, sea blue. She cupped Dani’s cheek in the palm of her hand, staring into the eyes she hadn’t seen in years. Two matching eyes. The brown faded away as if it had never been there.    
  
“She’s gone,” Dani whispered, her hand coming up to grip Jamie's wrist, “I can’t feel her anymore, it’s just me.” She dissolved into tears, “It’s just me.” 

And for the third time, the two girls cried at the edge of the lake, holding on to each other for dear life, life they could now share, one day at a time.


	2. Epilogue - Ten Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made myself cry writing this so I hope you like it. Don't worry it's happy though!

  
“Is that it?” The woman in the green dress asked and the others gathered around the fire seemed to lean forward slightly, listening carefully, enraptured by the storyteller.    
  
“What do you mean?” inquired the storyteller, tilting her head.

“That’s the end of the story? They all lived happily ever after?”    
  
“I guess you could say that, they all moved on, did their best to live normal, boring lives. Tried to forget the scariest parts of their story. Isn’t that what you’d have done?”   
  
The woman sat back in her armchair again, pondering the answer.

“Christ, is that the time?” The man in the bowtie was looking at his wristwatch, “Big day tomorrow.” he nodded at the bride and groom, side by side on the couch. “Best get some rest.”

The guests filed out of the sitting room, the man in the bowtie resting a hand on the storyteller's shoulder as he walked past, and the white-haired man in the scarf gave her a familiar nod of farewell.

Only her and the bride and groom remained, the groom stood, extending a hand and an invitation to the bride, which she declined. “I’ll stay here for a moment, I'm enjoying the fire, I love you.”   
  
He replied in kind before exiting the room leaving the bride and the storyteller alone.   
  
“Where is she then?” The bride leaned forward slightly and the storyteller’s brow furrowed.

“Who?”

“I have a lot of gaps in my memories from childhood, before we moved to The States. My therapist tells me it’s normal, for people who have experienced trauma, and losing so many people so young, well, turns out it’s quite traumatic. My brother has the same issue.” The bride nervously smoothed her dress and looked up at the other woman, “But I never forgot you, or Miss Clayton. How could I? After all, you’re the coolest.”

Jamie sat back in her chair and laughed, “Alright, you caught me. In my defence, the way Owen told it, neither of you remembered us at all.”   
  
“You didn’t answer my question.” Flora fixed Jamie with a challenging stare. “Where’s your wife?”   
  
“Mama!”    
  
Jamie turned automatically as a young girl with blonde pigtails and a cheeky grin bounded into the room, flinging herself onto Jamie’s lap and wrapping her arms around her neck.    
  
“Hey, baby! I missed you.” Jamie kissed her on the forehead and the little girl giggled. “Where’s Mummy?”    
  
“She’s right here,” Jamie's face lit up as her wife entered, dropping two bags just inside the door and pushing her blonde hair out of her eyes before leaning down to kiss Jamie.

“Hi,” She murmured, “I missed you.”    
  
“I missed you too,” Jamie replied, pulling her wife down for another kiss.   
  
“Ew, mums, stop!” The little girl wrinkled her nose, her voice an adorable mix of Yorkshire and American accents. Her mums broke apart and grinned at her.   
  
“Feeling left out?” Jamie teased before peppering the little girl with kisses, the girl squealing with laughter as she tried in vain to push her mum's face away. Dani shook her head at her family’s antics, finally looking away from her wife and noticing Flora still sitting on the couch opposite.   
  
“Miss Clayton, it’s been a while.” Dani smiled wider at being recognised, she could still pick up the tiniest tinge of a British accent in the way Flora pronounced her name, as if the years of not saying it had preserved it somehow.   
  
“Flora.” Dani greeted and stepped quickly across the carpet, Flora stood to greet her with a hug. 

It was a hug that lasted a little longer than expected, both women clinging a little tighter than one usually would for a greeting between a former Au Pair and her ward. 

Dani felt tears blur the edge of her vision as she held the little girl that she had loved so much she had given up a part of herself for her. Many years had passed and more had changed in her life than she had ever dreamed possible, standing in the freezing lake almost twenty years ago now, holding eight-year-old Flora. 

Now Dani had a wife, and a daughter and, most importantly, a future with both of them which was something that had felt so out of reach the night Viola had taken up residence in the back of her head. And now Flora, the small girl in the pink pyjamas, who had sobbed on her shoulder in relief and fear that night as Jamie had reached them in the water, was standing in front of her, all grown up with a life of her own.    
  
“Sorry, we missed the rehearsal.” Dani apologised as she broke away, brushing the tears from her eyes, “Oh, Flora, look at you... all grown up.”    
  
“Yes, that tends to happen.” Flora smiled back at her, “You got married?”    
  
“Twice.” Jamie stood, lifting the little girl with her, and came to stand beside Dani, who nudged her playfully.   
  
“Not yet,” She reprimanded, “She proposed to me back in April, when it was legalized, even though I asked her first  _ years _ ago and she said yes and we _ got married.” _ _   
  
_

Jamie shrugged as best she could with an eight-year-old perched on her hip. “You had your turn, so I figured it’s mine now, and we wanted it to be legal. I’d have married her right then and there but we figured having two wedding anniversaries was a bit much so we’re due to  _ legally  _ tie the knot in September.”    
  
“I’m gonna be a bridesmaid!” The little girl piped up excitedly.   
  
“That sounds fun,” Flora smiled, turning her attention to the little girl. “I don’t think we’ve met yet.”    
  
The little girl put out a hand, “We haven’t, but I know you, you're Flora, my mums told me about you.”    
  
“Oh, of course! Sorry Flora, this is our daughter, Paige Hannah Clayton.” Pride shone in Dani’s eyes as she watched her daughter confidently shake hands with Flora.   
  
“Pleased to meet you, Paige.” Flora greeted sweetly, “Your mums talk about me?”    
  
“Yeah, but not lots, whenever I clean my room they say it looks ‘Perfectly splendid’ and then they laugh and I asked them why and they told me you said it lots and they said you had a dollhouse made just like your real house and I asked for one for Christmas and they said no.” 

“Really?” Flora smiled and the little girl nodded in return, leaning her head on her mamma’s shoulder and yawning widely.   
  
“Right Poppet, it’s well past your bedtime, I think we’d better get going.” Jamie nudged Dani, “There’ll be time enough to catch up later, and you’ll be expected at our wedding too, so long as you promise to bring you brother and uncle too.” 

The last part was directed at Flora who replied with a smile, “We wouldn’t miss it.”    
  
They all moved into the hallway together, Dani grabbing the bags on their way out while Jamie carried the now very sleepy Paige through the hall. They chatted lightly about the day tomorrow, pausing at the top of the stairs to say goodnight.   
  
Jamie gave Flora a one-armed hug and Dani followed quickly, putting the bags back down in order to wrap her arms around Flora again. “Goodnight.”   
  
“Night,” Flora replied, turning towards the right side of the landing. Dani picked the bags up again and started to follow Jamie    
  
“Miss Clayton?” Flora had paused, on hand on the railing of the landing, and Dani turned to look at her.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.” Flora’s words held a weight to them, something unsaid hovering just below the surface. Her eyes locked with Dani’s over the empty space of the staircase.

Dani felt tears well up in her eyes again, she blinked them away and for a second, just one second, Flora was eight again, standing at the top of the stairs in her pink pyjamas, her hair in a long braid down her back. Dani blinked again, and Flora stood there, grown and smiling at her. 

  
Dani nodded in response and watched Flora turn and walk down the hall out of sight.   
  
“C’mon Poppins.” Jamie murmured from behind her, Dani turned and smiled at her wife and daughter, following them to their room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going by the maths that they were both around 25 when the series took place and they had eight years together before they got rid of Viola. Then two more years after that and they had their daughter, who is eight now. Flora is 26. And they live in Maine or Vermont, both states legalised gay marriage in 2009. 
> 
> Dani carried Paige. They still run the flower shop but Dani is also a part-time teacher at Paige’s school, which is why they were late bc they had school.

**Author's Note:**

> There will be a really short epilogue to this. I haven't proofread this because if I did I'd never post it lol. I finished the show and cried a lot then I decided that I'm sick of gays not getting happily ever afters and 10 years isn't long enough. 
> 
> I hope you liked it, this is canon now and I refuse to believe anything else.


End file.
